The 13th Annual Rogue Festival has brought performers from as far away as Brooklyn, New York and London, England. But one of the festival’s most notable performances is homegrown.
Fresno Dance Collective, directed by Rogue producer and Fresno City College instructor Amy Querin, has created a show that is both visually stunning and philosophically provocative.
“Raw Meat & Dignity” is a multi-part story of the journey from birth to young adulthood in the strict world of debutante culture. The dancers illustrate the transformation of the individual from the formlessness of pre-birth, visualized against the backdrop of Jewish folklore, to the rigidness of being a “prim and proper” Southern lady.
NOCO dancer Samantha Lazo was a performer in “Raw Meat & Dignity.”
“[The show] was mostly about how to become a debutante, a lady,” she explained. “Because to be a debutante, you have to be very proper, you have to go through all these classes. So it was kind of to train the audience on how to become a debutante.”
The performance, though, seems to delve deeper into what it means to be a member of such an elite group of young women. Yes, they are being trained in the ways of graceful society, but are they not being stifled at the same time? Where in the debutante version of womanhood is there room for the burgeoning sexuality of adolescence or the emergence of women as individuals?
These are all questions that “Raw Meat & Dignity” seems to address through the staggering beauty and athleticism of the dancers, as well Querin’s creative vision.
The final performance of “Raw Meat & Dignity” will be on Saturday, march 8 at 7 p.m. in the CalArts Severance Building. Admission is $10 in Rogue-bucks or cash.